Garden nectar sources by Richard Stewart

White-Letter Hairstreak by Douglas Hammersley

Garden Nectar Sources for Butterflies- H is for Hyacinth and Hemp Agrimony

Richard Stewart

Hyacinth is an early spring flowering plant and consequently important as a nectar source for early emerging insects, including butterflies emerging from hibernation. We have a colourful bed close to our main buddleias, being increased each year after pot ones have finished flowering. Margaret Vickery, in the national survey mentioned in previous articles, lists Brimstone, Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell nectaring, to which we can add Comma. Bees also find this an important early nectar source.

Grape Hyacinth flowers slightly later in our garden and is easily maintained and soon spreads. Peacock, Brimstone and Green-veined White have used it for nectaring in our garden, but Margaret Vickery’s list extends to eleven species.

Hemp Agrimony is a tall pink flowering species which I always associate with summer’s rich bounty. For some reason it isn’t part of the sixty nectar sources in our present garden, but it grew successfully in our previous one. It is usually associated with damp habitats, but we simply kept it well watered. It is in Margaret Vickery’s ‘top twenty’ with twenty-four different butterfly species nectaring.